Musical Instruments, Historic, Rare and UniqueHipkins, Alfred J. (Alfred James)
History
Musical Instruments, Historic, Rare and Unique
Hipkins, Alfred J. (Alfred James)
Musical instruments
The Positive Organ drawn in this volume has been intended for
chamber, not choir, use. It has three registers, and the drawstops
which control them project at the right-hand side of the case the
same as in the old Flemish harpsichords. The principal register, that
of the show pipes of gilt tin, is called the Montre; and the compass
of it is from the E below, to the third C above, middle C--three
octaves and a sixth. The second register, also of tin, is an octave
higher in pitch, but extends only from the first E below, to the
second C above, middle C; the remainder of the key-board compass is
borrowed from the Montre. The third register is the Bourdon--wooden
pipes stopped at the upper ends, an octave lower in pitch than the
Montre. The Bourdon extends in compass from E an octave and sixth
below, to the second C above, middle C. The three registers in this
instrument are consequently at octave distances, but Praetorius
(1619) describes an old positive in which the registers were in the
relation of the fifth and octave to the lowest!--a combination the
modern musical ear rejects. The boxwood natural keys with gilded
paper fronts, as seen in this specimen, were common to the earliest
known key-board instruments. The dimensions of this Positive Organ,
including the stand, are--height, 6 feet 4 inches; width, 2 feet 6
inches; and depth, 1 foot 4 inches. The paintings inside the doors
are, to the left, St. Cecilia playing upon a positive organ, while
three angels sing and a fourth blows the bellows; to the right, a
warrior crowned with laurel is in the attitude of listening; outside
the doors there are panels with paintings of a woman playing on an
instrument of the viol kind, and another playing a flute. There is a
crowing cock upon the apex of the cornice. This Positive Organ is the
property of the Conservatoire Royal, Brussels.
[Illustration: XII]
PLATE XII.
REGAL.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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